"In case this day came?"
"Yes. Yalena wanted to take the stones back from Benjamin and return them to Klesko"s a.s.sociates in Russia," Claire said, "in the hope that they would stop looking for her. But Benjamin made it clear that if she tried anything like that, he would reveal her new American ident.i.ty-and yours, Wally-to those same people. There was nothing she could do."
"What about after Benjamin died? Did his sons know where the caches were?"
"From the looks of that house," Claire said, "I would say not."
"Probably drove them crazy," Wally said. "Thinking about the stones somewhere out here, just waiting to be found."
"You"re probably right. But it didn"t matter, for Yalena. She still couldn"t risk trying to retrieve them, however many of the stones were left. The brothers knew about her new ident.i.ty, so she couldn"t do anything to anger them."
Claire stopped in the snow and faced Wally. "Klesko will never let us walk away. You understand? No matter what we do or what we give him. If we want to live, we have to win."
"I understand," Wally answered.
"Good. The snow will show our tracks, so we"ll take an indirect path to the first cache."
Wally nodded in agreement and they began to walk, heading off to the side of the Hatches" property, where their tracks in the snow would be less obvious.
"You know a lot of Yalena"s story," Wally said.
"Yes."
"Please tell me what you know about her," Wally asked as they walked along. Claire was silent for a long while before she began.
"Your mother was young when she got together with Klesko. It was a terrible mistake, and she realized it too late. It will be hard for you to hear this, Wally. ..."
"I may never get another chance."
"Yes, okay," Claire said, and gathered herself to continue. "Yalena tried to get away from him several times over the years, but he tracked her down and brought her back. The last time, he beat her mercilessly, almost to death, and raped her. That is how you were conceived." She paused, and the full weight of the message hit Wally all at once. "I"m sorry," Claire said, reaching for her hand.
Conceived by rape. The shocking story-Wally"s own cruel history-was a savage body blow, striking Wally with a depth of pain she didn"t think she was capable of feeling anymore. She looked to Claire, wanting to be a.s.sured by her loving gaze that life was not always this cruel, that there was still peace and goodness in the world. Claire had always been able to make Wally feel safe that way, but instead Claire turned her head away from her daughter, avoiding Wally"s glance as if it might burn her.
"Mom ..." Wally"s voice quavered.
Claire steeled herself to continue. "When Yalena learned that she was carrying you, she was determined that Klesko could never be a part of your life. She never told him about you."
"He doesn"t know about me?"
Claire shook her head no.
Wally considered this for a moment. Her path had crossed Klesko"s three times so far, and he had been following her when she finally found Yalena"s safe house. Who did Klesko imagine she was, anyway? Probably it made no difference to him, as long as Wally led him to Yalena, to the stones.
Wally and Claire walked in a wide arc away from the grounds of the Hatches" property and past small signs that marked the edge of the Mashomack Preserve. Claire continued to tell Yalena"s story, the first part mostly covering what Wally already knew.
"So Benjamin Hatch took the stones in exchange for getting Yalena to America," Wally said, still needing to understand. "What went wrong? Why did she leave me behind?"
"The problem was," Claire said, "Klesko"s a.s.sociates-powerful men-figured that with Klesko in prison, his riches belonged to them. After your mother made off with everything, they hunted her relentlessly, knowing she would try to escape the country. It was too dangerous for Benjamin to try to get her out at that point. So they waited. With the help of family and friends, she stayed hidden for six months, long enough to give birth to you. She and Benjamin thought that enough time had pa.s.sed for her to make her break, but as soon Yalena came out of hiding-with you-she was spotted. Your mother was certain she was going to be caught and both of you killed. She had an old family friend-Irina Ivanova-who was a nurse at a children"s home. Your mother made the hardest decision of her life."
"She left me behind."
"She did. She left you behind to save you. She never expected to escape Klesko"s a.s.sociates, but fate surprised her. Benjamin got her out of the country alive."
"And eventually she found me again." Wally filled in the logical progression of events. "In the U.S., with you."
"She never gave up," Claire said.
The woods became denser. Claire pointed to a small clearing with two red maple trees at its center, bare of foliage now.
"Between those two red maples is the first cache," Claire said. "That"s our moment, okay?"
Wally nodded. "Yes."
"We"ll find a place with cover and wait."
Claire led the way as they marched past the first cache, finding a spot among some snow-covered scrub brush just thirty yards beyond the cache. They both knelt down on one knee and waited, their eyes focused on the woods beyond the clearing, where Klesko would most likely appear.
"In all this time," Wally said, "why didn"t Yalena ever reveal herself to me? Why didn"t she tell me our story?"
Claire considered this. "She was ashamed. She had abandoned you."
"But it was to save me."
"Yes, but that truth was not enough for her to forgive herself. She had left you behind-alone and an entire world away-while she made her own escape."
Wally sensed a note of judgment in Claire"s voice and objected.
"She had no choice."
"No, and she hoped that one day you would be able to hear everything and understand. But by the time you were old enough, you were so very angry, Wally. Angry at everything and everyone. It wasn"t your fault; there were lies in our home, and unhappiness. You took all of that on your own shoulders, especially when your father left. Yalena thought that if you heard the truth, about her decision to leave you behind, your anger would fall on her. She was afraid you wouldn"t be able to forgive her."
"I would have," Wally insisted.
"Are you so sure?"
They were silent for a long time after that. A full hour pa.s.sed, there in the cold woods, and Claire wrapped Wally up in her arms to share her warmth. They almost didn"t hear it-quiet footsteps approaching in the snow-but the sound of a branch snapping alerted them. It was still a few minutes before the sun would rise, but there was enough ambient light in the woods for them to make out two figures approaching the clearing: one was Klesko, still limping but moving ahead with a sense of purpose, a handgun in one hand and a small shovel in the other. Beside him was Johanna, looking barely alive. She walked gingerly and off balance, with her hands fastened behind her back, and there was dried blood around her nose and mouth.
Claire let out a quiet gasp at the sight of Klesko.
"G.o.dd.a.m.n it," Wally whispered. "They"ve beaten her more."
"It"s just Klesko?" Claire whispered. "I thought you said ... didn"t you say there were two of them? Klesko and another?"
"There are two ..." Wally answered, and both of them began to scan the woods, looking for signs of the younger Russian. There was nothing. No sound and no movement, only the gentle snowfall.
"He"s here somewhere," Claire said, frustrated. "Following them, protecting against an ambush. We can"t make a move until he shows himself."
Klesko and Johanna reached the center of the small clearing, where the two red maples stood. Johanna made a gesture toward the two trees, and Klesko drew a huge combat knife from under his belt, cutting the tape around her wrists and freeing her hands. He shoved her down to the ground and tossed the small shovel down beside her. She began digging. The ground must have been nearly frozen, because her progress was slow. Impatient, Klesko reared back and kicked her in the ribs, sending her tumbling with a sharp cry of pain.
Wally flinched and almost stood up, but Claire grabbed onto her and held her down.
"Faster!" Kles...o...b..rked; his voice carried a little in the woods but was quickly muted by the snow that surrounded him, in the air and on the ground. Johanna crawled back to the cache site, leaving a trail of blood in the snow, and resumed digging. She stopped at the sound of her shovel striking something hard about a foot and a half belowground. Johanna brushed away some more dirt with her hand, then rose to her feet and stood back, waiting for Klesko to step in and claim his prize. Klesko took one step toward the cache but then stopped himself, suddenly wary. He shoved Johanna back to the ground and motioned for her to open the container while he kept his gun pointed at the back of her head.
Claire"s hand gripped Wally"s arm tightly. "Be ready," she whispered.
They watched as Johanna reached down into the cache slowly, but then suddenly spun around with a gun in her hand. Johanna squeezed off one quick shot at Klesko-the bullet missed its mark, and Klesko immediately dropped onto Johanna, struggling for control of the gun in her hand.
Wally began to stand, but Claire held her back.
"No," Claire insisted. "The other one is here somewhere."
At that very moment, they spotted a blur of motion off to one side of the clearing. It was Tiger, flying out from the forest like a bolt of lightning, dark hair flowing behind him as he covered the distance to the cache and struck Johanna with his fist, freeing his father from her grasp. He grabbed the handgun from Johanna and tossed it aside.
Claire and Wally were poised to jump out when a chance presented itself, but even through the struggle Tiger seemed to sense the possibility of an ambush; his eyes darted into the surrounding woods and he never lowered his gun.
"d.a.m.n!" Wally hissed.
Now Klesko, in a rage, stepped to the fallen Johanna-her head bleeding from Tiger"s blow-and held his gun to her head, ready to kill her. Before he could shoot, Tiger lunged at his father and knocked Klesko"s hand aside just as he squeezed the trigger. The shot plowed uselessly into the snow beside Johanna.
"Not yet!" Tiger yelled. He reached down into the hole and pulled out the cache box-a watertight plastic container the size of a coffee can. Tiger turned the box upside down to reveal that it was completely empty. He held the empty container up in front of Klesko. "We still need her, you see?"
Klesko howled with frustrated rage.
"b.i.t.c.h! I will cut out her f.u.c.king heart. ..."
"Not yet," Tiger said again, and hauled Johanna back up to her feet. She wailed in pain.
"There are more places, yes?" Tiger growled into Johanna"s ear. Johanna nodded yes. Tiger shoved her forward, and she began stumbling through the woods again, headed in a northeast direction. They pa.s.sed within twenty feet of Wally and Claire, who stayed hidden and silent as the men continued on, following Johanna as she struggled onward to the next cache.
Once Johanna and the two Russians were out of sight, Wally and Claire hustled through the woods as quickly as they could.
"We"ll arc around from the south," Claire said. "They"re moving slowly. We can still beat them to the second cache."
"How will we stop them? Is there anything in the next one?"
"Yes," Claire said. "I don"t know if it will work, but we need to be ready."
Within a minute, they pa.s.sed a small pile of mossy fieldstones, now covered with a thin layer of the falling snow.
"The cache," Claire said. "It"s there, beneath the middle rock."
At that moment they heard Klesko"s voice barking out behind them; he was not yet visible in the dense woods but not far away, growing closer.
"Keep moving," he commanded. "Which way?"
Wally and Claire moved to a crumbling stone wall, fifty feet away from the second cache, and ducked down out of sight behind the rocks. They watched as Johanna appeared again; she slogged through the snow, unsteady on her feet and looking only half-conscious as Klesko prodded her on with his gun barrel. Tiger"s head was on a swivel and his gun raised, as if he sensed a threat nearby.
Soon they reached the cl.u.s.ter of fieldstones that Claire had pointed out as the second cache. Klesko shoved Johanna forward onto her knees and Johanna pulled three of the stones away from the cl.u.s.ter, exposing a patch of open ground. It took just a few sweeps of her hand to clear the thin layer of soil, revealing the top of a plastic container exactly like the first.
Tiger stayed vigilant, scanning the surrounding woods.
Johanna reached to pull away the top of the cache container, but Klesko grabbed her by the shoulder and heaved her aside. He stepped up and reached for the lip of the container to pull it back, but then suddenly stopped himself.
"What?" Tiger asked.
Klesko took a few steps back from the plastic container and prowled the area nearby until he found what he was looking for: a fallen branch, about eight feet long, barely visible under the layer of freshly fallen snow. Klesko picked up the branch and stripped away its smaller limbs.
"Step away," Klesko commanded Tiger.
Tiger obeyed his father, pulling Johanna with him as he moved away from the cache. He continued to scan the surrounding woods like a well-trained soldier.
Fifty feet away, Wally and Claire huddled behind a ruined stone wall, watching in dismay as their plan unraveled.
"d.a.m.n it," Wally whispered.
Klesko crouched low and kept his distance from the cache. He reached the long stick toward the cache container, placing the tip of the branch under the lip of the plastic container"s lid and raising it. Nothing happened. Klesko took a cautious step forward, close enough to see that the cache was completely empty. Klesko stepped back and crouched low again, then reached the tip of the branch under the bottom part of the plastic container and lifted it, upsetting the cache container from its spot in the cold earth.
There were two old, rusted soup cans dug in underneath the container, each covered with a layer of aluminum foil and attached to a small wire. The cans were only visible for a second before they exploded, sending their double-powered pulse of light and sound in every direction as Klesko and Tiger shielded themselves from the force of the blast.
THIRTY-FOUR.
"b.i.t.c.h!" Klesko howled into the frigid morning air. Klesko stepped up to Johanna and kicked her hard in the gut.
Behind the stone wall, Wally and Claire cringed at the brutal punishment.
"s.h.i.t," Wally whispered desperately. "We have to-"
"No," Claire said, trying to keep it together. "Not yet."
Klesko shouted at Johanna. "How many more?"
"One more," Johanna said, her voice gone so weak that Wally and Claire could barely hear the answer.
"So we stop playing this game, yes?" Klesko said, trying to temper his voice to sound reasonable. "Any stones in the last?"
Johanna, obviously feeling hopeless, just shook her head no.
Klesko chuckled darkly and gave Johanna another merciless kick to the ribs. The woman was so weak and beaten that her body did not even flinch at the punishment.
"Tigr, your birthright is no more."
Tiger didn"t want to believe it, but the reality of it seemed clear.